Hope lost
by Sjeherazade
Summary: When Spinelli comes up with the idea to cycle to the caves after school everyone agrees. But as their parents wouldn’t like it that much they “forget” to ask for permission. Later that evening the cave collapses and no one knows were they are…
1. Day 1

**Disclaimer:** Recess does not belong to me

**Hope Lost**

Day 1.

TJ glared at the clock for the twentieth time in the same minute. It was ten minutes left of Friday's last lesion and the clock seemed dead. Gretchen was the only one who was listening to the teacher. TJ looked down on his finished drawing again. The drawing portrayed Miss Finster standing like a dog peeing on a fire hydrant.

TJ giggled and added Randall who made faces with his fingers on his nose. Then he looked at the clock again, only two minutes had passed. TJ turned his head to look at Vince, who had fallen asleep. This wasn't possible, the sun was shining and it was a really beautiful day and they were trapped in a classroom as Miss Finster's and principal Prickly's prisoners. Miss Grotke had told then about Hitler and his internment camps in Poland for too long, TJ actually began to find some similarities.

Spinelli opened her desk and pretended to take her eraser out, but really, she put it away, looked at the clock and ticked off the day on her list and closed the desk again. That gave TJ an even more perfect picture of a prisoner from the movie Grotke had shown them, one more day, only a million to go.

One minute left, all of the children, except Gretchen stared at the clock, Vince had waked up again. After a very long minute the bell rang and everyone ran out. Miss Grotke and Gretchen sighed but Gretchen picked her things and ran out with her friends anyway.

It was a very beautiful day, TJ and his friends stayed at the playground until Finster told them to go home. It was when they walked out of there Spinelli got her brilliant idea.

"Hey, can't we cycle down to the deadly pool of mud?"

"We should ask our parents first" Gretchen interrupted and then everyone cycled home to get some snacks and ask permission.

TJ didn't care asking his parents. They would say no if he did, as he had spoiled his t-shirt last time he had been there. He stole some food and sneaked back to the place they had decided to meet on. And then they cycled away.

They arrived at the deadly pool of mud and her surrounding caves at six. Gus had borrowed a military blanket which they all had space to sit on. They pulled it out, sat there and ate what they had.

Fifteen minutes later the whether got worse so they cleaned up to go back home, but when they had finished the rain was over them. They placed all they had on Gus's blanket and carried it into the biggest cave to wait for the rain to stop.

After two hours it was still raining. Mikey ate a block of chocolate while he watched the rain. Actually everyone enjoyed this.

Then the thunder began. It was quite fun to hide under the giant blanket and watch the lightnings. They huddled in the back of the cave and had forgotten about time.

Vince and Gretchen sat back to back and dozed when the lightning hit the cave from above. There was a strange sound in the cave and everyone rose. Gretchen started to shiver when she looked above her.

"I think it's time to go home now!" the others could hear the panic in her voice. Then the lightnings stroke the cave again. It was a big lightning which made the friends fall to the ground, and then the cave collapsed in front of their eyes.


	2. Day 1 part 2

**Day 1 ****(part 2)**

TJ's mother looked at the clock, half past seven, it wasn't unusual that TJ was out with some friends and forgot about time but he always used to call and ask for permission. The phone rang.

"Detweiler…" it was Vince's mother.

"Hello, is Vince there, he haven't come home yet and as Ku Klux Klan's members have been seen, I want my boys home by now."

TJ's mother didn't want to scare her friend more then she had already done herself, but there wasn't anything else to do.

"No he is not here, and TJ isn't here either, I was about to call you"

"So he has disappeared too? I have just called the Spinelli's, Ashley hasn't come home yet either!"

"But, then they have to be out playing all of them. I'm sure Vince will go home immediately if he sees anything."

When TJ's mother hang up the phone she wished that she had said something more consoling, but now it was too late. She sighed and lifted the phone again to call Gretchen's parents.

--

The children stared in horror on the closed opening. Gus couldn't stand to do nothing so he fumbled in his backpack and found his torch which worked with a handle instead of batteries.

"We are lucky that I remembered to bring this thing." He said relieved when he had made it shine. "What are we going to do now?"

"We should calm down" Gretchen said, but she was still shocked so she didn't sound that convincing at first. But then she continued a little calmer. "When our families' notice that we are missing they will come here immediately, then they'll see that the cave has collapsed and call the fire brigade and they will dig us out."

Then Gretchen got very silent and looked very sick. There was one more thing she wanted to tell the others but didn't dare to say.

"Gretchen, what's wrong?" Mikey asked.

"I didn't ask for permission" she admitted and watched the others. "But you did… you did, right?"

"Not me…" Gus said as the last one she had been looking at.

"Not me…" TJ echoed. Spinelli shook her head when they turned their heads in her direction. Vince too. Now the silence fell and everyone slowly turned their heads to look at Mikey, the only one who hadn't admitted that he hadn't told anyone that he was going to the deadly pool of mud.

For some seconds Mikey considered if he would admit his mistake or lie to give his friends that minimal hope, but finally he sighed and decided to tell the truth.

" No, I didn't told them either, I wouldn't be allowed to go if I did" When Mikey had said that the silence fell while the whole truth came over them. They were trapped in a collapsed cave, and nobody knew where they were.

Spinelli was the first one to recover.

"Okay, back to the first question. What are we doing now?" After only a few seconds time for consideration Vince walked over to the rocks and tried to remove them, without result.

"It doesn't work I'm too weak. Maybe it was a bad idea."

"No… it's the only idea we got!" Gretchen said and walked over to Vince to help him. Then they all tried and succeeded to move the rock, but there was still many rocks left. TJ sat down and gasped for air.

"This will take years." He said and looked at his friends. Gretchen was deadly tired, Gus kept standing on his feet in pure pride and Mikey had succeeded to move the rock just because he carried that much weigh himself.

They continued with the next rock, that was a little smaller, and they continued digging like that for hours.

Ten o'clock Gretchen fell to the ground, totally exhausted, and then they decided that it was time to rest and think. They had some food left and in the back of the cave there was a water well so some days they actually could survive.

They all fell asleep as they lay down, and no one woke up until next morning.


	3. Day 2

**Day 2.**

Spinelli was the first one to wake up and she woke up the others, after a breakfast that consisted on a half sandwich each, (and a whole for Mikey), they started digging again. But it was difficult as no one of then was completely rested and on the heap of rocks they couldn't see that anything had happened.

When everyone was too exhausted to dig anymore, they went to the well to drink. Gretchen stared down into the water that was reflecting the light in Gus's lamp.

"Do you think that they wondered why we didn't come home yesterday?" she asked. TJ opened his mouth to answer but the words disappeared.

"Let's continue!" Vince said and walked back to the rocks. Vince tried to move heavier stones then he could all the time and as a result, he needed to rest a lot, which he didn't.

At twelve that day it still seamed like nothing had happened on the heap and even Spinelli wanted to cry.

----

TJ's mother had lost her remaining patience. Two o'clock she called the other parents and they went to the police.

Vince's family was quite relieved that Vince wasn't the only one who was lost. His father thought that as all the other children were white the probability that any racists was involved was less… That was at least what he told his wife. But really he didn't have a clue.

**----**

**Sorry, I know this chapter is quite short****…**


	4. Day 3

**Da****y 3.**

The parents' got a call from the police at nine o'clock the next morning. They wanted to know if the children had come home and tell them that they suspected crime.

The families decided to move together. Then the police only needed to do one call and they would all know what had happened at the same time and, most important, if Vince's mother fainted, at least one of them would be there to help her.

--

In the cave, the children woke up to another day and continued to dig. They had succeeded to move a lot of stones to the walls, even if the heap looked just as when they began. The entire day they continued digging, with some minimal brakes to eat a half sandwich and drank the water. It was about four o'clock in the evening their monotonous life changed for a moment.

"Mikey come here and help me and Spinelli with this one" Vince called. Mikey wiped his forehead and turned to him just in time to see it. As he looked at the big stone and then a bit higher up he saw something was moving.

"VINCE, SPINELLI GO AWAY FROM THERE" none of them got time to react before they was buried.

Gus ran back to his torch and winded it even as they had all light they needed already. The others run over to Vince and Spinelli, moved the stones that had fallen over them away and dragged them to safety. Both of them was still conscious but had big and deep wounds, none of them would be able to dig anymore as their wounds could be muddy.

Gretchen sat down on one of the rocks to think. Now they were only four who could dig, their force had been reduced.

At the same time Mikey, TJ and Gus tucked Vince and Spinelli in, in the military rug and cleaned their wounds. Gretchen watched the boys and then the rocks. "I wish that the Diggers were here" she thought sadly then she began to cry. TJ saw her and went back to her, Mikey and Gus followed him after some seconds.

"Spinelli and Vince is asleep" TJ told Gretchen, wishing that he could come up with something better, but even he had lost the ability to find the right words. Gus sighed

"Okay, let's continue"… He was interrupted by Mikey.

"Wait, we haven't seen what's behind the well". Gretchen jump to her feet.

"Yes of course, it can be another way out!!"


	5. Day 4

**Da****y 4.**

Miss Grotke didn't knew anything about what had happened in the weekend. She had arrived in her car at Monday morning and there was just another day at school, except for the fact that some of the desks were empty. None of the students knew anything so the entire day passed.

When the day had finally ended, Miss Grotke drove to the same newsstand as every day. As she was too tired after the day, she drove home without even looking at the paper.

First when she sat down in her armchair she saw them, on the first page.

It took her some minutes to recover from the shock, then she began to read.

According to the newspaper they had been lost since Friday.

In the cave, the digging continued as usual. Gretchen hadn't found another way out. Everyone had got horrible delayed onset muscle soreness.

TJ decided to take a break. He was very tired, every part of his body was injured and all the time he worried about Vince and Spinelli who still hadn't woke up. He went over to them to take care of the wounds that they had got when they were buried, cleaned them and put new plasters on. Then he went over to the well and drank what felt like several litres of water.

Gretchen, Mikey and Gus was still working and TJ went back to them to continue. They was just as tired as him after all, and they had pains too. Gretchen had climbed up a bit to see if she could find another solution, but as she was to tired to climb she fell. Gus watched her for a while, he felt more and more worried.

"G-Gretchen" When Gus turned Gretchen on her back, her glasses fell off. They were broken and in her forehead there was a big wound and blood were she had hit the rock.

Mikey soon found a blood-stained stone, looked around and caught sight of Gretchen and Gus. He and TJ came over to the place, helped each other to carry her to Vince and Spinelli and tuck her in too. Spinelli mumbled a little and fell asleep again. Then they went back and continued digging.


	6. Day 5

**Da****y 5.**

The people at the newspapers were quite happy with the course of events. With six lost kids in town, everyone bought the paper.

Even on the news all over the country, everyone were fantasizing over what could have happened.

The parents had moved together at Gretchen's home. Becky, Chad and Spinelli's brothers hadn't been in their schools or works since the day their siblings had disappeared.

Vince's mother had staid in bed since Saturday night.

----

Mikey continued to struggling with the enormous rocks. But it was just his own weight that made it possible at all. TJ and Gus worked hard too but now and then they took a break to take care of Vince, Spinelli and Gretchen. All of them was awake now but Gretchen had a horrible headache and all three of them went weaker and weaker every second.

So TJ decided that the best thing they could do was to eat more then before. But Gretchen refused to eat, it was hard to get her to drink the water too. And the heap was still immense.

Gus looked helplessly at the heap, he didn't really know if it was the stone heap that refused to shrink or his three friends who refused to eat that was the biggest torment for him..

They was almost out of food. And if they wanted to escape, it was necessary that TJ, Gus and Mikey had the strength to dig, but if they gave priority to that, the others would starve to death.

TJ went back to the heap, still to hungry to move actually. Mikey followed him, Gus followed him too a while after.

All three of them fell asleep in the heap that night.


	7. Day 6

**Da****y 6.**

Next morning TJ and the others woke up and together, they once again attacked the impossible.

After only a few minutes Gus fell to the ground and remained sitting on the stone while he, in vain, tried to compose himself.

Mikey immediately knew what was wrong with him. Just like those three who was asleep in the military blanket, he had weakened himself until he very soon wouldn't be able to continue.

----

Lawson wasn't allowed to go outside. Every child in the town had been forced to stay inside since Friday as every parent was afraid that their children would be kidnapped to. But in some way he had succeeded to get his bike and go away before he was called back.

He couldn't take this anymore, deprived his freedom because of that Detweiler and his friends had disappeared, this was insane.

He arrived at the deadly pool of mud were he used to go to explore the caves sometimes.

But this time he didn't found what he wanted. His cave had collapsed.

For a while he tried to come up with something that would make the adults to clear it up for him, but as he couldn't find any solution he sat up on his bike again.

He was about to leave when he caught sight of six other bikes among the trees. He moved towards the place and then… he was very sure that one of them belonged to Vince La Salle.

Just as the lightning had stroke the cave, it now hit him.

They were still in there. He sat up on the bike and hurried to the police.

----

Gus's breathing had been hard to control. TJ ran over to the well to get some water to cool him up again. Then Gus fell asleep.

TJ and Mikey looked at each other for a moment and then they turned away. There was no point to continue now when they had only two left.

Mikey sat down to cry, then he suddenly remembered them, the diggers. They were only two and they would surely make it. And Vince, Spinelli, Gretchen and Gus had all continued to dig until they had fallen to the ground.

He rose again and went back to the stones. If this was the end, he would not be we worse then his friends. They hadn't given up, he wouldn't give up either.

TJ presumably thought about the same thing, when Mikey started to dig again he rose too and went back to the heap to help him.

----


	8. Day 6 part 2

**Day 6 Part 2**

Lawson threw his bike away and ran up the stairs to the police station.

"I have seen them" he shouted at the same time as he came inside the door.

"Who?"

"La Salle, Detweiler, Spinelli. Everyone! I would recognize La Salle's bike anytime. It lay in the same area as a cave that has collapsed".

The police officers wasn't late to react. First they called the kids parents and then the fire brigade.

It was Mikey's mum who took the phone. After the talk, she ran in to the others.

"They have found them" she shouted. And soon everyone sat in the cars and some time later they were there… before the fire brigade.

The children's fathers climbed up on the rocks outside the cave and started to dig.

----

During that time, Gus had recovered a little and like TJ and Mikey he decided not to give up until he was just as finished as Vince, Spinelli and Gretchen, and it wasn't that bad yet.

Then TJ saw something. A stick. A quite strong stick. With Gus and Mikey helping him he made a wall to protect the injured. And then Gus who was the smallest, climbed as high up as he could and started to break away stones.

He hadn't even begun when he suddenly was dazzled with sunlight and heard a voice, his father's voice. His dad was out there and he seemed to try to console someone.

When Gus had became accustomed to the light he noticed that it was Mikey's dad he was talking to.

Gus reached out his hand through the hole and screamed.

"Hey, I'm here" Mikey's dad stopped crying immediately and sat up. And Gus's dad came over to the small opening.

"Gus, is it you? Are you all right?"

"Yes I am quite fine, just a little tired, but I'm a little worried about Vince and the girls."

"So you are there, all of you?"

"Yes"

Inside the cave TJ began to be impatient.

"Gus, what is it?"

"Our fathers are here" he said and smiled at him. Gus's dad came closer.

"Gus, climb down again, we will try to get you out." Gus did as he was told and took TJ and Mikey with him to the wall.

----

Finally the fire brigade was there. And the ambulance and TV had arrived too. Lawson was there too. He was the hero, even if he also was grounded because he had sneaked out.

Mikey's dad climbed down from the heap to leave space for the firemen, but the others wanted to continue.

Mikey's mum was a little sulky over that but she wasn't the one to grumble. Instead she climbed up to help. Mikey's dad felt a little ashamed and climbed up again to give his wife and the others a hand.

----

In the cave Vince and the girls had woken up and noticed the light.

Spinelli looked up and measured the length with her eyes and then she told Gus:

"Hey, I can climb out through this hole" she was right, she was small enough. Gus climbed up to tell their parents and the firemen what they wanted to do.

At the same time Spinelli was placed on the blanket.

Gus climbed down and took one corner of the blanket. Then he discovered that he too was small enough to climb out. Gus pressed himself out and dragged Spinelli with him.

If Gus was able to crawl our in that little hole, then Gretchen and Vince could do it as well, TJ thought and asked the men outside to wait a while before they continued digging. He and Mikey dragged the blanket inside the cave again and soon Vince and Gretchen was dragged out in the same way. But both Mikey and TJ was still too big so they climbed down again. To wait.

When TJ and Mikey finally was free, all of the others had already been taken away by the ambulance. None of them remembered very much of that event, Mikey had fainted almost immediately when he came out of the cave and TJ fainted before he had even left it and was carried out later.

The next days they were in the newspapers and on the TV news over the entire country. These events had been followed all over the country from the start, but now as everything had turned out as good as it did, it have almost become a legend.

Lawson was on the news too as the boy who found them but he got less time every day as the others could leave the hospital.


	9. Day 7 and the end

**Day**** 7 and the end.**

Mikey and TJ was the first to leave the hospital. They did only have to stay for one night. And next day even Gretchen could leave, but at that time Vince and Spinelli wasn't even awake.

The first night TJ was at home, he was unusually quiet. He had just been eating his mother's food. And now he sat on his own bed and looked out through his own window. And thought…

Later his mother came into his room.

"How are you? Does it still hurt?"

"No"

"Are you thinking?"

"It was one thing that happened in that cave" he explained. "It had just collapsed. Gretchen said that it wasn't that bad and that we would be rescued the next day. But then we admitted, one by one that we hadn't told anyone where we was going. No one knew where we were, as everyone had _forgot_ to tell anyone because we _knew_ that we wouldn't be allowed to go. But if just one of us did, then none of us would have to be in hospital now, Vince and Spinelli wouldn't be in coma and everyone would be happy. And if this one person had been forced to stay at home by his or her parents, then he or she would have known where to seek when the rest of us didn't came home the next day and we would have been rescued much faster, maybe even before anyone got hurt." His mum had been listening the whole time. TJ looked at her and lay down in his bed again.

"You are right" she said. "It was not the most responsible you have done, but you are safe now. You are all alive."

"Yes, but Vince and Spinelli is just lying there and doesn't know anything"

----

He was right. Vince and Spinelli didn't know anything, before about half a month later, when they woke up in the hospital. And they had to stay there for some more days both of them.

Finally they was allowed to leave hospital anyway, and some days after that, they were all back in school.

And there they got a big surprise.

Miss Finster had made a party to celebrate.


End file.
